Your Critical Emotions….
Posted on 17. Oct, 2009 by Kelly Brown.
To a great degree, civilization itself can be defined as the intelligent channeling of human emotion. Emotions are fuel and the mind is the pilot, which together propel the ship of civilized progress.
Which emotions cause people to act? There are four basic ones. Each, or a combination of several, can trigger the most incredible activity. The day that you allow these emotions to fuel your desire is the day you’ll turn your life around.
1) DISGUST: One does not usually equate the word “disgust” with positive action. And yet properly channeled, disgust can change a person’s life.
The person who feels disgusted has reached a point of no return. He or she is ready to throw down the gauntlet at life and say, “I’ve had it!” That’s what I said after many humiliating experiences at age 25.
I said, “I don’t want to live like this anymore. I’ve had it with being broke. I’ve had it with being embarrassed, and I’ve had it with lying.
“Yes, productive feelings of disgust come when a person says, “Enough is enough.”The “guy” has finally had it with mediocrity. He’s had it with those awful sick feelings of fear, pain and humiliation. He then decides he is not going to live like this anymore. Look out! This could be the day that turns a life around.
Call it what you will, the “I’ve had it” day, the “never again” day, the “enough is enough” day. Whatever you call it, it’s powerful! There is nothing so life-changing as gut-wrenching disgust!
2) DECISION: Most of us need to be pushed to the wall to make decisions. And once we reach this point, we have to deal with the conflicting emotions that come with making them. We have reached a fork in the road.
Now this fork can be a two- prong, three-prong, or even a four-prong fork. No wonder that decision-making can create knots in stomachs, keep us awake in the middle of the night, or make us break out in a cold sweat.
Making life-changing decisions can be likened to internal civil war. Conflicting armies of emotions, each with its own arsenal of reasons, battle each other for supremacy of our minds. And our resulting decisions, whether bold or timid, well thought out or impulsive, can either set the course of action or blind it.
I don’t have much advice to give you about decision-making except this:
Whatever you do, don’t camp at the fork in the road. Decide. It’s far better to make a wrong decision than to not make one at all. Each of us must confront our emotional turmoil and sort out our feelings.
3) DESIRE: How does one gain desire? I don’t think I can answer this directly because there are many ways. But I do know two things about desire:
a. It comes from the inside not the outside.
b. It can be triggered by outside forces.
Almost anything can trigger desire. It’s a matter of timing as much as preparation. It might be a song that tugs at the heart. It might be a memorable sermon. It might be a movie, a conversation with a friend, a confrontation with the enemy, or a bitter experience.
Even a book or an article such as this one can trigger the inner mechanism that will make some people say, “I want it now!
“Therefore, while searching for your “hot button” of pure, raw desire, welcome into your life each positive experience. Don’t erect a wall to protect you from experiencing life.
The same wall that keeps out your disappointment also keeps out the sunlight of enriching experiences. So let life touch you. The next touch could be the one that turns your life around.
4) RESOLVE: Resolve says, “I will.” These two words are among the most potent in the English language. I WILL. Benjamin Disraeli, the great British statesman, once said, “Nothing can resist a human will that will stake even its existence on the extent of its purpose.
“In other words, when someone resolves to “do or die,” nothing can stop him.
The mountain climber says, “I will climb the mountain. They’ve told me it’s too high, it’s too far, it’s too steep, it’s too rocky, it’s too difficult. But it’s my mountain. I will climb it. You’ll soon see me waving from the top or you’ll never see me, because unless I reach the peak, I’m not coming back.
“Who can argue with such resolve?When confronted with such iron-will determination, I can see Time, Fate and Circumstance calling a hasty conference and deciding, “We might as well let him have his dream. He’s said he’s going to get there or die trying.
“The best definition for “resolve” I’ve ever heard came from a schoolgirl in Foster City, California. I was lecturing about success to a group of bright kids at a junior high school.I asked, “Who can tell me what “resolve” means?” Several hands went up, and I did get some pretty good definitions. But the last was the best.
A shy girl from the back of the room got up and said with quiet intensity, “I think resolve means promising yourself you will never give up.” That’s it! That’s the best definition I’ve ever heard: PROMISE YOURSELF YOU’LL NEVER GIVE UP.
Think about it! How long should a baby try to learn how to walk? How long would you give the average baby before you say, “That’s it, you’ve had your chance”?
You say that’s crazy? Of course it is. Any mother would say, “My baby is going to keep trying until he learns how to walk!” No wonder everyone walks.
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Monster 7 SEO Tips…..
Posted on 16. Oct, 2009 by Kelly Brown.
We are going to look at 7 Basics of SEO below. These aren’t the only things you want to know about SEO, but are the areas you should learn first. Some topics will only take you a minute, some will take a little longer, and others will become an ongoing process. But after reading through this list you should have a good handle on where to start and where to proceed next.
SEO Basic 1: Let’s start off with a definition. SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and is the process by which you Optimize your web site so that it is positioned well in the search engines. This is not the same thing as designing a site so that it attracts customers and entices them to buy.
SEO is what you do specifically on your site to improve your Search Engine Position. If you do a search on Google for any search term you will be presented with a list of links. At the top of the page and along the right side will be PPC links where someone pays an amount per click to get positioned. With PPC the more you pay the better your position. Most people only glance at these listings. You don’t need SEO to get one of these positions, just lots of money.
The body of the page contains “organic” listings. These links are listed in the order that Google determined best fit your search, with the best match first. There are only 10 listings per page, most people will only look at the 1st page, maybe the 2nd. So your site needs to be listed within the top 10 and at the worst within the top 20 for any useful exposure. With SEO you will be adjusting your site code so that your site will rank highly. This can be a daunting process as there may be thousands of sites competing for the same top listing. A trick is to aim your pages at less popular search terms to get higher placement. It is better to be on page one for a term that gets 1,000 searches per month than to be on page three for a search term that gets millions of visits.
SEO Basic 2: Your web site must be search engine friendly. The search engines send out “spiders” or “bots” cataloging web pages they come across. If the search engine has trouble getting through to your pages it will either rank your page poorly, or skip your site all together. Making your site Search Engine Friendly means having the code easily accessible, no errors in the code, and guiding the search engine through your site.
Try to steer away from complicated coding when possible. Check your site for coding errors. This is fairly easy to do with web programs like Dreamweaver which do this for you automatically. Plan on having text based navigation on every page. This is usually placed at the bottom of the pages. You may also want to have a “Site Map” page with easy to follow text based links to all of your important pages. Search Engines will look for a Site Map and will use that to navigate a site if available.
SEO Basic 3: The Most Important SEO Aspect is Keywords. Keywords are the terms you type into a search engine to find interesting web sites. You need to know what search terms people are likely to use to find your site, then use those terms as your Keywords. Make a list of the keyword combinations you can think of that you would use to find your site. Try them all on a search engine and see the results.
You need to see how these search terms perform on the web and what other search terms could be used. A great free tool to help with this research is available at Google:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
You type in a search term, then you are given a list of similar search terms, how often they were searched and some advertiser comparison figures. You can quickly find additional keywords and to see how well they perform. A good idea is to optimize your site for a less frequently used keyword combinations so that you can achieve a higher placement. The Google Keyword Tool will help you figure this out.
Focus on keyword groups with 3 or 4 keywords. Many times keywords will overlap, so you can focus on a longer keyword combination and cover many other combinations at the same time. For instance, if you are designing a page to sell Photoshop Training, you can optimize for this keyword phrase “Adobe Photoshop Training Video”. This will not only give you optimized performance for this keyword combination but also for these other keywords and combinations as well:
Adobe
Photoshop
Training
Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop Training
Adobe Photoshop Training
Photoshop Training Video
So try to come up with a multiple keyword combination that will contain several other keyword combinations as well.
Once you know what keywords you want to use you are ready to place those keywords on your page. The main places you want to use the keywords are:
In the meta title of the page
In the meta description of the page
In the first sentence on the page
In all of the image alt tags
In links to and from the page
Well represented in the body text of the page
Make sure you Pick the right keywords, and make sure they cover more than 5% of the word usage on the page. An easy way to get more keywords onto a page is by using lists such as:
We carry:
Adobe Photoshop Training Video Sets for Educators
Adobe Photoshop Training Video Sets for Students
Adobe Photoshop Training Video Sets for Business
Keep in mind that your page text should still be user friendly. If you use your keywords too frequently or in strange ways on your page, it may rank better in the search engines, but it will drive away visitors. Who wants to read a poorly written page?
SEO Basic 4: Don’t try anything funny. There are lots of “tricky” things you can do to cram more keywords into a page without annoying your visitors. The problem is that the search engines know about these tricks and will penalize your site if you use them. So don’t do any of the following or you may find your web site disappear completely from the search engine listings.
White letters on white background, or any other similar text coloring trick. Even using a very light gray text on a white background, or very dark gray text on a black background can get you bumped from the search engines.
Don’t repeat your keyword over and over again. People used to do things like this at the top or bottom of their pages: Photoshop Photoshop Photoshop. This worked in the early days of search engine optimization, but no longer. You should also not try this trick in alt tags, image names, links or other places in your code. The search engines will spot this and you will be penalized.
Don’t put keywords into comment tags. Also don’t put keywords in hidden form fields. The search engines will spot these and mark you down accordingly.
Even though putting keywords into image names and alt tags is a great idea, don’t think that you can just create a bunch of clear gif images sized at 1×1 and fill those with keywords. The search engines are very good at spotting tricks like this as well.
So use your keywords appropriately, don’t try to sneak one past the search engines and you should do just fine. Just keep in mind, if you think that you need to hide the keywords to trick the search engine you can rest assured that they have already thought of that and will do their best to devalue your site accordingly if you use these “black hat” tricks.
SEO Basic 5: All pages should have links to other pages. The main search engines like links. They like outside sites linking into yours, but they also like links within your site going to other pages. So in this case having more pages can be useful. Also since you now have all these pages that you are linking to it gives you a great place to use some more keywords. Make sure that your links include your keywords.
But, and this could have been in section 4 above, don’t create “doorway pages” that redirect you to another page. It used to be common SEO practice to create lots of doorway pages, each one stuffed with specific keywords, all of which would redirect the visitor to the actual page they were looking for. This would give your site lots of pages, with lots of internal links and would allow you to tightly optimize these doorway pages for specific keywords, but the search engines have gotten wise to this trick and now penalize the use of redirect pages. So don’t use redirects unless you absolutely need to and never use doorway pages.
SEO Basic 6: Only optimize a page for one or two keyword groups. More than that just dilutes your keyword ratio. The search engines will analyze your web page to determine which words are used as keywords. They do this by looking at the title, the description, the page heading and the words used on the page. They then determine how relevant your keywords are to your page. So, if you try to use too many different keywords on a page, it will only bring down the percentage of any individual keyword or group for that page. It is better to optimize for a larger keyword group as discussed above than to try to optimize a page for a lot of individual keywords that can’t be easily used in one sentence. If you need to have a page optimized for several different, unrelated keywords you are better off creating several different pages and re-writing the body text on each page to match the keywords you are optimizing for. This will make each page relevant for the specific keyword and will get a better placement in the search engines.
SEO Basic 7: Be patient. Even with a perfectly optimized web site it can take several months for it to rise in the search engine standings. I usually recommend waiting at least 90 days and up to 6 months to see how well a web page is doing in the search engines. Also, even though you have gone to great lengths to target a specific keyword or keyword combination keep in mind that the search engines aren’t required to agree with you. So when checking your standings look at several different search terms that you discovered in your research and see how well your page is placing. Hopefully you will find that your chosen keywords are getting your page listed the way you want, showing that your SEO has worked properly.
If you find that your page is ranking better for a different keyword, you should examine your page code to see why and make adjustments as needed. Maybe your page is placing higher for a keyword combination you weren’t focusing on, but it is still a good combination for your goals. This gives you an ideal opportunity to go with that new combination to achieve even higher placing.
So, get started right now on your SEO. The longer you wait, the longer it will be before your web site is showing well up in the search engines.
In Closing
There is a lot more to SEO than just these 7 quick points, but this will get you started on the right path. Go through these steps and your web pages will be well positioned for any other SEO you may want to perform on your site in the future.
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How to Take Inspired Action…..
Posted on 15. Oct, 2009 by Kelly Brown.
I often write about the role of focus and vision in manifesting your dreams of effortless success. I know that folks are so often anxious to take action – and I’m all for taking action, even MASSIVE action – BUT (and I know all my clients know I usually forbid the use of the word “but”) BUT, action ONLY works when it comes from a place of focus and vision.
That’s why you have to start with the inner stuff before you take action. Otherwise, you will most likely be taking action from the place of seeing what’s missing. It can be a challenge to allow the action to take a temporary back seat. I promise you that it is well worth it when it comes to the level and type of results you will get from taking inspired action. What do I mean by inspired action versus the action that comes from a place of scarcity, doubt and frustration? Inspired action comes from the higher level of creativity, trust and wisdom that you arrive at when you take the time to focus and vision.
Inspired action often seems to come out of nowhere; you get an inkling to try a particular action. It may not even make sense to you at the time. Yet, what happens is that the inspired action leads to a positive result. For example, you know you want to attract more business and you want to work with people that you love to work with. You sit with this vision for a while because you just don’t know how to make this happen. At some point a name pops into your head. Maybe it’s someone you haven’t thought about in a long time, or someone you don’t know very well, if at all – perhaps a Facebook friend. Your thought says get in touch with this person. So you take the leap and give him or her a call and, lo and behold, that is the exact person that can show you how to attract more ideal clients. Perhaps it even turns out that they just opened a new program on the very topic you need and you get the early bird rate. That’s an inspired action and it’s so much better than getting frustrated with not knowing HOW to make your dream a reality and calling someone in the same boat with whom you spend half an hour complaining about your lack of ideal clients.
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The Case for Passion….
Posted on 14. Oct, 2009 by Kelly Brown.
What is Passion? Passion is a force – sometimes and uncontrollable force – that infuses life with meaning, joy, and even outrage. In any event, passion fosters commitment and determination. Passion is an urge or desire that consistently calls us to action, often radical action. Passion can be used or misused. When guided by the wrong motives, passion can be very dangerous. When guided by the desire to help people lead bigger, richer, fuller lives, passion has the potential to help create a better world. Passion is the fire that burns within. It often starts as a spark or a flame and eventually turns into a blazing fire that stirs the soul. Passion is that incredibly compelling emotion that enables us to go places others are afraid to go, to try things others are afraid to do and be the kind of people others are afraid to be! Passion creates the energy and drive required to do what others think is impossible.
The Business Case for Passion
Is there a business case for cultivating passion in your organization? Is it really a competitive advantage? Can passion make a difference in terms of accomplishing your organization’s objectives? Consider the benefits:
1. Passion intensifies our focus. In a complex world where we’re moving at .com speed and we’re bombarded with information, it’s easy to get distracted. Passion gives people the courage to say “No” to distractions by staying focused on the bigger “Yes.” It’s the magnetic force that keeps people working on things that make the business more competitive.
2. Innovation and creativity become key factors in adding value to the customers we serve. Approaching the business with a fresh, new perspective requires people who are fully awake, fully alive, and who have an active, intense, engaged focus on making things better. Innovation requires that our minds work furiously when we come to work. Passion activates our minds, expands our awareness (we observe more intensely), and challenges us to think outside the conventional box.
3. With intense pressures to perform it’s easy to cut ethical corners and compromise doing what’s right. It requires passion to protect and promote the values driving the business. To say, “No” to a questionable business deal that will generate a lot of revenue takes guts. It takes the courage and passion to stand upon your convictions.
4. People with passion raise the standards of performance in an organization. They have a tendency to hold others accountable and tolerate nothing less than the full-blown commitment of everyone around them. Their commitment to a higher standard becomes contagious, spreads throughout the entire system, and eventually becomes a part of the fabric of the culture.
5. People with passion create an electric, exiting work environment that energizes others. They contribute to building the kind of culture that attracts world-class people.
6. Passion creates a sense of urgency that is required of every organization going through change in today’s highly competitive world. Passion is the enemy of apathy, complacency, and procrastination. Passion is usually dissatisfied with the status quo.
7. Passion helps people deal with fear. Change is scary – for anybody! But when our passions are bigger than our fears we develop the courage to step outside our comfort zones, risk more, fail faster, and learn like crazy.
8. There is less attrition and absenteeism in a passionate work environment, where meaningful work and a heroic cause energize people. People don’t want to miss the thrill of the journey and the significant things going on at work.
9. It seems that the cultures of many firms is corporate America and around the world breed a political correctness that is socially acceptable. Unfortunately, it’s not conducive to the burning fire or radical passion that is required to bring about revolutionary change. Dramatic change and complexity are requiring an unprecedented effort from the contemporary work force. Passion will be the key to PERSEVERANCE in the midst of this change.
10. Perhaps the most exciting benefit that comes from cultivation passion is an organization is the contagious enthusiasm it generates. Passionate people ignite enthusiasm in the rest of us. Something so alive in them awakens something that needs to be alive in us. Passionate people inspire hope and enthusiasm. That’s why they’re so attractive to be around. There’s an intensity, a commitment, a PASSION with which they approach their work – it’s inviting and tantalizing, it’s heroic and alluring, it’s inspiring and provocative all wrapped up in the same package.
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Focus & Discipline…..
Posted on 13. Oct, 2009 by Kelly Brown.
Fact, the most difficult point in starting any Opportunity is the Starting Point in advertising. Here are a few thoughts:
1. Don’t try to be an expert in everything. Focusing on trying to do everything in advertising will result in nothing. You must have focus in one or two areas of advertising.
2. Start with the simplest and still the most effective form of advertising….Banners. If you are fortunate enough to have a System that supplies you with Banners, use them. If not, go out and have them made for you. Elance.com and WarriorForum.com are a great place to get quality work done for free.
3. Once you have Banners, start with Money Making Blog Sites. What do I mean? Well a very easy way to see where to advertise is on a blog site such as this. Go to resources like blogcatalog.com, and go through various blogs. Use Search Terms “Home Based Business”, “Make Money from Home”, “Opportunity Review Sites”
4. Once You have a List of 100 or more sites YOU would frequent, now go to Alexa and get Stat information. Remember the rules we trained on in a previous posting. Then, with you BUDGET begin placing between 7-10 ads a day, with out fail.
5. Now, that you have a Banner strategy, go hit some free stuff. Utilize Free Internet Classified Ads. Work on content writing and driving traffic. I suggest if you have a new business online to utilize http://www.free-press-release.com/ and http://www.prlog.org/ Do some free press releases. Don’t fall in love with spending a bundle of cash promoting your press release. Just drive some traffic. Plus, you can use these press releases in other ads!!!
A big question I get often is what type of banners convert and don’t convert? Easy, the ones that don’t convert are the one that never are placed. When your a newbie, especially when you are a newbie, forget the psychology a Flash vs. a still Banner. Remember in Advertising you can never say the wrong thing to the right person. The wrong thing is the thing that is never said….Marketers, out smart themselves with who is doing what, how, when where, and why. The marketer that wins, does is with CONSISTENT PERSISTENCE. The time to tweak will come later. For now, here is the rule of the Advertising Jungle:
Whoever gets there Splash Page in front of the Most
People…WINS!!!!
Simple? You bet it is. However, it is the one training and technique that is least talked about. You can never fail when you are taking consistent daily action.
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Six Ways to Turn Desire into Money….
Posted on 12. Oct, 2009 by Kelly Brown.
The Method by which desire for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent, consists of six definite, practical steps:
1. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of Money.” Be definite as to the amount. There is a psychological reason for definiteness.
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. There is no such reality as “something for nothing”.
3. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once!! Whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
5. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
6. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after waking up in the morning. As you read, see and feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.
Monster, bottom line is to provide definiteness and structure to your desire. Make it real, make it daily, this will be the only way to make it happen!!! Unleash the Monster in yourself and your Business today….
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Murphy’s Law VS. Law of Attraction Quotes….
Posted on 11. Oct, 2009 by Kelly Brown.
Everyone is familiar with Murphy’s Law: Everything that can go wrong will go wrong, which is usually quoted by those “the glass half empty” people. Optimists have turned Murphy’s Law on its head with their affirmation that whatever can go right will go right.
It gets even better, by using law of attraction quotes. By becoming familiar with law of attraction quotes, we learn that what goes wrong or what goes right depends of what we’re attracting into our lives with our thoughts and feelings. By keeping law of attraction quotes in our minds, we are able to transform circumstances to make sure that everything can go right.
The law of attraction states that what must go right, will go right. So, your daily review of law of attraction quotes is your key to crafting a mindset to transform circumstances so that everything must go right.
Law of attraction quotes is the first of the four raid change technologies I discuss with my clients. Law of attraction quotes represent the low lying fruit in the process of going from a victim of Murphy’s Law to being a master practitioner of Law of attraction quotes.
Each Law of Attraction Quote is Worth a 1,000 Words. The Law of attraction is a “your wish is my command” law. But there is a catch. The catch is that your wishes must be the result of a super focused, highly crafted mind. Sounds tough, I know. That’s why law of attraction quotes is your secret weapon. Using law of attraction quotes makes the process fast and painless.
There is no substitute for law of attraction quotes in designing your super focused, highly crafted mind because each law of attraction quote is the distillation of pages and pages of inspired teachings. You, no doubt, have heard a picture is worth a thousand words; well so is a law of attraction quote. Each law of attraction quote is easily worth a thousand inspired words of wisdom.
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Never Stop Dreaming & Start Dreaming Again….
Posted on 10. Oct, 2009 by Kelly Brown.
Remember when you were a kid and felt you could set the world on fire? Millionaire? Sure. Hollywood star? Of course! Astronaut? Easy. Best-selling author? No problem. World traveler? Start packing.
So what happened? Where are you now? Are you living the life you thought you’d lead? Unfortunately, life has a way of knocking the stuffing out of our highest hopes and biggest dreams…if we let it! Most people have lost the sparkle in their eye and the fire in their heart. They’ve lost their passion and allowed their lives to become a faint glimmer of the vibrant vision they once had for themselves. They’ve committed the great sin of the spirit and settled for a life of mediocrity.
The main reason most of us lose our dreams is not because our desire has waned, but because of fear. “I don’t have the money, I don’t have the time, it’s too late, I don’t know for sure if I can do it.” All of these reasons are nothing but the excuses of a fear and lack based protective mind. There is a saying in life, that we either have “reasons or results.”
It’s time to take back your power; time to think big once again; time to rekindle your greatest dreams. Dreams that excite you, dreams that impassion you, dreams that force you to break the bonds of “mediocrity”; reach your fullest potential and become the “ultimate you.”
EXERCISE:
Today, list the big dreams you had from the past or invent exciting new ones! Come from power versus fear. Start thinking about what you “can” do instead of what you “can’t” do. Commit, then focus on one step at a time and begin immediately!
Declaration:
I consistently take action on my big dreams.
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Power From Within……
Posted on 09. Oct, 2009 by Kelly Brown.
Understand ALL of us have a power from within. We have have the ability to Realize and Achieve. We must stand and require from the World what we want. You must ask. You must Ask of Yourself and the World, and you will receive.
I received an email the other day, the Question was….but the answer is something we should all evaluate and utilize:
I get how frustrating this has been and acknowledge you for not giving up on your goal. Before I offer what I hope is some encouraging advice, I want to eliminate two potential issues that could be roadblocks to achieving this goal no matter what kind of motivation I present to you.The first thing I am wondering is if standardized tests have always been challenging for you. Not everyone learns or processes information in the same way. It’s possible to be intelligent and comprehend information, yet still struggle with certain test formats.
My first suggestion would be to try to find a tutor that specializes in test-taking strategies as it may be the manner in which the test is given rather than the actual material and information that keeps you from conquering this exam. I realize you have already spent money on support but if this resonates with you, it may be a very wise investment.
Next, if you consistently perform poorly and need external factors to motivate you, this may not be the goal to chase. You may be getting (and possibly ignoring) feedback from the universe. Often the things we think we really want are perhaps not on course and the way we are redirected is that roadblocks keep showing up. I challenge you to challenge yourself and investigate the roots of this goal. Is getting your MBA something you think you “should” do? Are you trying to prove something? Is it an expectation that belongs to someone else? Do you have outcome-based expectations about what the MBA will provide? If your answer was “yes” to some of those questions, pursuing your MBA may be more of an ego-driven goal rather than something you TRULY want.
If any part of this resonates with you, I encourage you to consider whether putting this goal on hold for a little while and heading another direction may be more self-supportive. Sometimes saying “no” to one direction is saying “yes” to another that is more on course.If nothing I said so far resonates with you at all then you are clearly just in need of some good old-fashioned motivation! One of the best ways to generate intrinsic motivation is through habits and routines. The more we are in the practice of doing something and are accountable to ourselves, the more driven to action we become. Start by scheduling a certain number of hours per week (my suggestion would be a minimum of one hour per day) that you set aside to study/develop yourself. Make this a non-negotiable, uninterrupted appointment with yourself and your dreams. If you miss an appointment with yourself, make sure to make up the time. Breaking our word with ourselves triggers internal feelings of self betrayal and sucks the life out of motivation.And start today!
My sense is when you get discouraged you lose momentum and may slip into patterns of procrastination which also take you farther away from your goal. For some insight on this, I turned to life and executive coach BrianWhetten. Brian shared: “We usually think that procrastination means we’re lazy, unmotivated or unworthy. But that’s rarely the case. Instead, it usually comes from an over-use of guilt and self-judgment. What do you tell yourself about your study habits? Do your thoughts include things like ‘I should be more motivated’, ‘I have to stop procrastinating’ or ‘I blew it again’? Thoughts like this cause a burst of guilt and stress. Used on occasion they can push us forward, but when they become a habit, they quickly start to backfire.
So instead of trying to “should” your way forward, start by writing down the judgments you’ve been making against yourself, and then check out www.thework.com as a powerful tool for releasing them.”In addition to reframing your self-talk and the way you approach studying, it’s important not to go through this process alone. Find a study group to be a part of that can offer encouragement and support. Keep yourself in the conversation about your goal.
Putting yourself into “investigation” mode can be a catalyst for increased learning and motivation.Above all else, this is a tremendous opportunity for you to learn how to motivate yourself. Going to grad school is not a walk in the park and the habits you are indulging in now create the foundation for the type of student you will be. Keep your focus on your goal and if it is indeed something you truly want, the motivation will be there.
Made me think of how this message pertains to every element of being an Entrepreneur. All goals, Athletically, Spiritually, Grad School, or Starting and Running a Business all need the same elements. Action Now, Power Within, and Self Talk to Action…Success is simple once you build a proper foundation. Go reshape your foundation in your Life or Your Business Today!!
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Does a Positive Attitude Make a Difference?
Posted on 08. Oct, 2009 by Kelly Brown.
PASSION…stop for a minute and say the word out loud with feeling … Passion—how does that feel to you? Think about it for a few seconds, and now say it again…Passion. I would bet that if you are really in touch with your feelings, you might say it makes you feel squirmy, sexy, and alive. But why is that? It’s just a word, right? Well, Yes, no, sort of.
PASSION is a life force, and that force is life. When you let yourself be in touch with your feelings, you can feel that life force and the power that’s behind the feeling of PASSION, the most intoxicating of all. It’s the spark that can not only ignite the dynamite, blow it out of the water kind of power source, but an opening of the valve that can literally transform you everyday life into an extraordinary one, and a master of creation!
Now just so we are clear about this, I am not talking about sweaty hot Palpitating heart flashes or spastically bouncing off walls, nor hip, hip hurray cheerleading….even though it is true, passion does come in all forms and degrees. The passion I mean is a strong inner knowing, a quiet sureness that continuously reassures that you are the one in control of your destiny, and that “the tiger you are holding by the tail is actually you!”
“I want it, I got it, sign me up,” might be your thoughts of the moment… and I fully intend to give you that gift, but first let’s play a game. Starting with you thinking about something that you want to bring into creation—a relationship, a new career or bringing your career to another level, a healthy fit trim body, or a new lifestyle in a better area or home?
Pick just one to work on, any one, even if you would like to create all of the ones above. Now, ask yourself, what is the fuel behind this dream? Is it a desire for money, possessions or fame? Whatever the reason, if your creation is not powered by a PASSION for you to follow your joy, you not only are going to be working overtime, it will never be all it can be. Again, the question rises up…how do you activate a passion generated by joy and not a need that demands effort and often doesn’t produce the results you want? How?…by not resisting your natural instincts and birthright to have what you want come in an easier and more joyful way. The sooner that you can let go of the limiting voices in your head that have convinced you that there is only one right way to achieve, the sooner you will allow and feel the buzz of PASSION pushing you forward to your dream.
At www.amazon.com. Meister Eckhart book called The Passion for Creation, really brings this message home.
Start by sparking your passion by creating a space to feel, to examine what really excites you. What dream you have always had, that if it came true would be like WOW. Now in that safe space, ask yourself these questions: What do you repeatedly dream about having, what is your vision or goal that you may never have shared with anyone else? What do you read about, watch on TV, often times get into conversations with others? Ask these questions repeatedly until you can clearly feel what excites you, and then give yourself the time and chance to investigate your passion…and then take the risk. Take the risk of falling in love with your dream and your own personal power of creation.
Since I have played in this game of creation for quite a long time now, I can honestly say that one of the biggest roadblocks that often shows up around creation is fear; False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear that some- one might not like or approve of your ideas, fear of stepping out of your comfort zone, fear that you won’t have the steam to stay with your dream and keep moving forward, fear that you will succeed. So now you have the tools to recognize the devil in the blue dress, what do you do about it?
Begin by feeling the fear, and then let it go. Then put a voice to the fear, say it out loud and visualize it evaporating in the air …like a puff of smoke. When you can see that the line between fear and excitement is very thin, then very quickly fear can turn into excitement and passion, and what use to be fear, can now fuel your creation. Transforming fear into passion is no different than going from knowing that you can’t hike a mountain because it’s too hard and scary-to taking on the challenged, reaching the top and feeling totally empowered. We stop the flow of great amounts of PASSION that could fuel our visions when we allow our fears to take over.
Shifting from denying and fighting the fear to accepting it, helps you to release it and then use it to keep you in the game. Let passion fill you up and lead you to your true joy. Smell more roses, watch more sunsets, eat dessert first, walk barefoot in the morning grass, and do more. Laugh more, dance more, love more, explore more places, be more spontaneous, indulge in more hobbies, lunch with more friends, smile more and have more fun. Do whatever you can to create a vibration that attracts a continuous flow of PASSION into everything you do. PASSION begets PASSION, so start working on building up that PASSION muscle this very minute. PASSION fuels creation because it is creation in full bloom!
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